Letter: True picture is muddied

A lot of anguish is being expressed at ‘funding cuts’ to various police forces around the country, the most prominent of these naturally being our wonderful Metropolitan Police Force.

However one area of the finances of these organisations that is being ignored concerns the constant drip, drip of compensation payments and fines that they have to fund, particularly by the Metropolitan Police. Figures are of course obtainable under freedom of information, but with many barriers in the way to enlightenment.

When they are fined, where does the money come from? Do the bobbies themselves pay up out of their salaries? I don’t think so.

Does senior management fork out? I don’t think so. So guess who does pay. The people who pay for the police pay – the rate payers of London.

Either the fines and compensation payments are added to the police rating bill for each council tax payer to pay, or cuts to services are made appropriately.

Could this be the reason why we are being told about ‘funding cuts’ when the true picture is muddied by incompetent personnel, leading to fines and compensation payments.

These then have to be paid for by the citizens of this country, and not by those who do their jobs badly, and against whom other sanctions are few and far between.